DEFA

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during World War II.

After the war, infinite numbers of refugees leave in search of a new home. They now stand in the hall of a large mansion, waiting to receive their deeds of ownership for sections of land that the lord of the manor had left behind after he fled. Among them is the young Jeruscheit who, during her travels, had to bury one of her own children. Her husband has been declared missing, and up until now she has had little purpose in life. But then she discovers it: to work, to build, and to help others. And maybe someday Jeruscheit will find her family.

After WWII, Berlin lies in ruins. For Gustav, Willi and their friends the rubble provides an adventurous, dangerous playground. Especially for Gustav, it helps pass the time, as he longs for his father's return from a POW camp. One day a stranger arrives, looking helpless and hopeless... Gerhard Lamprecht built his reputation during the 1920s and '30s with films like Emil and the Detectives (1931, script Billy Wilder) and socially-critical Berlin films based on the drawings of Heinrich Zille. In Somewhere in Berlin-his first postwar film, made just months after the cessation of hostilities-he portrays the people of the shattered city with precision and psychological realism.

Hauptkommissar/Chief Inspector Friedrich Naumann - played by old pro Paul Bildt, veteran actor of over 180 movies - operating in a Berlin still reeling from the immediate devastation WWII caused on all levels, attempts to break the most ruthless gang's grip upon the black market which is a necessary evil in this zero hour and brings the worst and the innocent into the same cauldron. Naumann targets the Club "Ali Baba" to strike a blow at its owner Goll (Harry Frank), the black market's kingpin, but one of Naumann's own men, Becker, is an informer blackmailed by Goll to keep him one step ahead of the law's movements. After the unsuccessful raid and the "official" closing of the file Naumann continues his investigations by himself, but as he gets too close to busting all up by finding evidences of irrefutable nature he is murdered. Not long and another Naumann enters the scene: Friedrich's PoW returned son Paul begins working as Goll's driver in the drug pusher gang. The different connections between gang leader/club owner Goll, sidekick and employee Yvonne (Nina Kosta), informant Heinz Becker (the blackmailed workmate of murdered Chief Inspector Naumann) and son Paul Naumann (approaching the moment he understands Goll brought about his father's death) provide tense levels of interaction. The police won't let it rest after Friedrich Naumann's murder and make a second attempt to raid the Ali Baba Club without Goll being tipped off this time and the police take him down with the gang.

In Nazi Germany actor Hans refuses to divorce his Jewish wife Elisabeth. He is threatened to be drafted and sent to the front while she will be deported to a concentration camp. Desperate, Hans decides that suicide is their only way out.

The body of Franz Wozzeck lies on a table in an anatomy lecture of a small German university. Whereas the doctor in charge of dissecting the cadaver can only see the murdered corpse lying on the table, Buechner, a medical student, sees the corpse of a "human being." "A human being" he adds, "that we have murdered." Buechner then proceeds to tell the story of Franz Wozzeck. Franz Wozzeck was a poor soldier. He endured the harassment and humiliation of his military superiors. His meager soldier's pay allowed him to provide for his beloved wife, Marie, and their child with the bare necessities and secure a modest future for them. It was this basic desire to earn money for his family that lead Wozzeck to be the guinea pig in a series of harsh medical experiments - for his participation in the experiments Wozzeck earned a few pennies. Marie is a beautiful and sensual girl, who loves Franz. But she also suffers from his physical and mental deterioration, and his morbid pathological visions. Owing to her difficulties with Franz, Marie eventually falls into the hands of the tenacious and seductive drum-major. When Wozzeck learns about his wife's infidelity - in their small village, news of conjugal indecorum quickly makes the rounds - he directs his entire indignation and rage against Marie. Indeed, it's not his tormentors he pursues with his wrath, but rather his beloved wife - whom he eventually kills. A film, based on Georg Buechner's taut drama, with exceptional visual power. Sharply realistic and uncannily visionary.

Erika is 20 lives with her strict parents in a post-war apartment, works as a tiller in a laundry and is always hungry. In her friend Else, she sees how she should do it: Else has caught an older man who provides her with new stockings

A chemist and his assistant make a groundbreaking discovery. They manage to make butter directly from pasture grass without having to deal with either the cow or the use of dairy products. An industrialist attempts to seize the invention.

During the global economic crisis, the pit "Morgenrot" is due to be closed due to unprofitable results. With the use of a machine forbidden for security reasons, the mates try to work more effectively and thus save their jobs.

Post-war Germany 1945: Two rival gangs of uprooted boys fight each other in the ruins of Berlin, whose business is the black market out of necessity in order to survive. Their respective leaders are Gerhard and Dietrich. A pretty young circus artist named Corona comes to the destroyed city with a traveling circus. She immediately caught the boys' attention. When the latter notice that the circus director is abusing the girl, the two gangs join forces and plot an act of revenge against the tyrant. But with the hustle and bustle caused by this, Corona falls from the trapeze and is seriously injured. When the circus moves on, the boys organize a doctor for the sick artist who has been left behind. Their collectively concern for the blonde beauty makes them forget their enmity. This welds the troops closer together and sets the course for a common, meaningful future.

1948: Students from Berlin University take part as extras in the shooting of a film about the 1848 Revolution. Students form two camps, which fight each other violently about the historical events, commanded by Elsa and Heinz.

This early postwar suspense story, based on a well-known 1926 murder trial with Dreyfus-like overtones also represents an East German reflection on Nazism. Dr. Blum, a Jewish manufacturer living in Germany, is falsely accused of killing his booker. Even when the real killer's identity becomes evident, the state prosecutor refuses to accept Blum's innocence. The film explores German reaction to the trial and investigates the relationship between the legal system, antisemitism, and fascism, providing insight into the historical context that allowed Nazism to flourish.

During the Thirty Years' War, Christine, an orphan, fall in love with Count Merian. In order to always be with him, she dressed as a man. Little by little Christine realizes that the man she loves is completely brutalized by the war. When she dates him in place of a peasant fire, she is horrified by his brutality. She shoots him in the duel. Christine is sentenced to death as a man, but acquitted as a woman.

After the end of WWII, a group resettlers reaches a small village in central Germany, which has been spared from destruction. The new arrivals, who live in a resettlement camp separated by a bridge from the actual village, counter mistrust and rejection of the village community. Even the spokesman for the resettlers, Michaelis, despite his commitment is hardly able to bring about a change in thinking in the adults. The village youths however do get over their resentment: Michaelis' daughter Hanne falls in love with Martin, the nephew of the village mayor. But Martin is also courted by the innkeeper Therese. When Martin decides for Hanne, Therese has the bridge destroyed in revenge causing a fatal accident. Afterwards, due to negligence, she causes a fire that soon affects half the village. The resettlers, whose camp is effectively separated from the village on account of the destroyed bridge, then swim through the river and help to save the village. The joint construction of a new bridge finally brings together newcomers and long-time residents.

Karli is sentenced to a juvenile camp after stealing a car. The commandant was later replaced by a strict disciplinarian, who believes in barbed wire, hard labour, and punishment by deprivation of food; thus causing some boys to flee.

Family drama spanning three generations and almost 70 years of German history, from the Wilhelmine period through the end of WWII.

The life of the worker Hans Behnke and his family from 1925 to 1945 in Berlin. Hans ultimately does join the Nazi party, but still shows signs of disagreement with their ideology.

An adaptation of the play by Gerhart Hauptmann about a washerwoman who exposes the secrets of the supposedly respectable citizens of the area.

A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst's visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory. With this film, director Slatan Dudow (1903-1963) continued the traditions of proletarian German film from the Weimar Republic. As with his first feature film Kuhle Wampe, from a screenplay by Bertolt Brecht, Dudow wanted an art that "cultivates the viewer's psyche." His postwar films were intended to make the viewers realize the importance of supporting the "new order" in East Germany. Our Daily Bread became known as a premiere film of its day under the rubric of "socialist realism." Slatan Dudow's work was convincing mainly through his detailed descriptions of socialist everyday life. Music by Hanns Eisler was the centerpiece of contemporary review. After coming back from his exile in America, the composer created a score that challenged, thrilled, and focused. Berlin's world of ruins is captured in almost documentary fashion.

Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.